Sunday, 7 August 2016

Fracking my ass

"Residents affected by fracking could be paid some of the proceeds of shale gas projects, the government has suggested."

There's the misleading bold faced lie. Obviously an attempt to bribe away opposition from residents. Easy to see. Note please, the word "could". Odds are they won't see a penny, but for the moment lets assume they powers that be, meant to use the word "will", so where does the money come from? Well, the article goes on to say...

"A shale wealth fund was unveiled in 2014 to set aside up to 10% of the tax proceeds from fracking to benefit communities in the UK hosting wells."

Now that point right there says everything you need to know about how government works with oil companies. The tax-payer will pay for it out of tax, while the companies destroying the environment pay nothing extra to resolve the issues.

You might counter by stating that its coming from the tax the companies pay, and you'd be right. But that's missing the point. The amount of tax they pay has not been increased to cover this additional cost to the tax-payer (that's you and me). So the money that should have gone into the government purse via tax, has instead been removed from the national budget. That's a shortfall that will be made up by Mr and Mrs Joe average and the taxes we have to pay.

So why do it this way? "Because money". Companies don't want to pay more than they have to and the government has given them an "out", a way to avoid to compensation that they are morally due to pay.

This has put the profits in the companies pockets and the costs on the government (the tax paid by you and me).

The government has sought this method to shore-up big oil companies who are in a dying business. Oil prices are dropping as we move towards renewables, the cost of gathering that oil is rising (fracking isn't cheap) and the cost of doing business is being piled on the backs of the tax payer, while the businesses make out like bandits.